image [https://imgur.com/15VMkNn.jpg]

There was a huge confidence boost once we’d managed to defeat a nasty heck spawn. Now we turned our heroic gazes up to see the return of the evil Janus!

"I was banking on her not knowing stardust, but I guess that didn't work out." Janus started to hover back down to our level. "Stupid me, thinking an angel wouldn't know how to weaponize light."

He threw off his robe as his feet touched the floor, revealing crimson armour underneath. Veins of pixels ran across the armour, circling around spikes that jutted out in a few places.

Under the armour he had a dark grey skin tech suit. It had fancy looking patterns on it that looked like orange fire.

The part that truly got my attention was that he had a crystal heart embedded into his chest, like me. It was red though, not blue, and chipped and cracked all over. It really didn’t look like it was supposed to keep functioning in that state, yet somehow it was.

“Where did you get that heart?!” Uncle shouted.

“It was a gift from my patriarch.” we couldn't see his mouth, but the pixels of his face warped ever so slightly to portray a smile. “Relics like these are handed out to the most powerful in my family.”

That meant there were more crystal hearts out there, but only Exceed were supposed to have them! How did this meanie's family get those?

Now I think I understand why he had such high levels of access here. It was because he had the authority of an Exceed with that crystal heart. But still, I would've thought that I'd have higher access than him.

Maybe his power was to hack things. He already showed he could use his powers to jam and confuse signals, and he spoke though the towers speakers, so that had to be it.

"Uncle, is it possible that he's a hacker?" I asked.

“Smart, kid. You figured me out," Janus exclaimed. "But those smarts will only get you so far.”

Uncle stood forward with confidence. “Knowing our enemy is the first step to beating him.”

He said something so cool. I have the coolest uncle!

“Knowing won’t win you this battle if you can’t catch me.”

A wall of black looking pixels opened up in the air. Janus stepped right back into it and disappeared.

What the…?!

Moments later, Janus popped out of an identical dark pixel wall behind Uncle and kicked him down.

He dove back in, preforming the same maneuver.

He kept diving in and out of those shadow pixel portals and attacking, quickly getting an advantage.

"Oh no!" I cried.

Something literally smelled stinky whenever one of those portals would appear, like rotten eggs. There was some vapor residue left in the air for a few seconds after he'd use a portal. Come to think of it, I could smell the same thing from the gunk on the wall after the demon exploded. What was this stuff?

I took hold of some of the shadow gunk and analyzed it with my hand scanners...

…Analyzing materials; complete…

The only thing in this mixture on the periodic table was sulfur and carbon. Everything else was in a so-called Occulat Element category. That was for weird elements that didn’t exist without magic.

Sulfur must have been what I was smelling. Every time one of those portals were about to appear, that smell also popped up. This gunk and his pixel portals must have been made out of the same thing.

I synced up my nose with my eyes and specifically tried to detect where the sulfur would burst out in the air first.

Everything turned greyscale, helping the colour contrast better. The moment something appeared, I'd see it.

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There it was! A big stinky cloud of green!

“Uncle, behind you!”

With my callout, uncle was able to slash in the air and cut Janus before he fully stepped out from his portal.

“What?!” Both Janus’s voices exclaimed as he fell to the ground.

He tried teleporting again, but I called out his position and Uncle got a critical strike to his chest, right on the crystal heart! The cracks in it grew twice as large, causing red energy to spit out of it in waves.

Crystal hearts should be indestructible, but his wasn't apparently. It must have been a fake!

Janus flew backwards and landed on the ground, convulsing like he was having a heart attack.

The pixels that were covering his skin disappeared completely, fully revealing his odd two faces and pale flesh.

This might have been it! Uncle could deal a coup d'etat and finish this!

But the crafty villain wasn't done. He summoned shadowy arms from the black gunk on the walls and smacked Uncle away from him.

The arms waved around in the air until dissipating away into a dark haze.

"Good hit, but I'm not done yet." Janus stood up, clenching at his crystal heart. "I'm not sure how the kid figured out my teleporting, but she's a lot more dangerous than I thought."

Little black stitches filled the cracks of his heart and did a very unique repair to the damage. It must have been more of his dark energy at work.

Then he shouted, "Time for things to get serious!"

An aura of fire flickered to life around him, then flattened on his claws, making them look like fiery.

After that, those orange patterns on his tech suit turned into yellow lightning bolts. A new aura appeared with electricity. electricity sparked around him every few seconds.

This had to be some kind of elemental magic. Fire and lightning, to be precise.

There were a lot of things I hadn’t learned about elemental magic yet, but it was very dangerous in the wrong hands. Uncle definitely needed to be careful.

Uncle's brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed with frustration.

“Your family, who are they?” he asked. “Why'd they send you?”

“The Family of Sai." Pixelated wings appeared behind him to cap off his magical enhancements. "I’m here on orders of our patriarch to secure all the mana energy in this place. Then bring it back to him in the form of that lovely demon you destroyed.”

"It seems your plans now lay splattered on the walls. You failed, so leave.”

He chuckled, flaring his teeth out in a grinching smile. "Nope, not without the kid." He tilted his head toward my direction. "I think bringing home a little angel might be a good apology."

I didn’t want to be kidnaped!

Uncle's eyes narrowed even further on Janus, realizing more of the threat we were up against. He let out a sigh and clenched his free hand until his knuckles cracked.

His fist lifted up into the air and his suit turned bright blue, then it transformed into crystal armour, something like a knight might wear, but slimmer and sharper. His hat changed into something that looked a little like a cross between a helmet and music headset.

He also had his glassy bee-like wings appear behind him. I didn't know he could use those in his human form.

The strangest thing was, he also had a crystal heart. It must have normally been covered by his tie. I guess his human form needed to use it for power.

Then Uncle said, “I see how it is. So, your patriarch was the one who installed that heart in you?”

“He gave it to me, but didn't install it.” Janus put a hand over his heart. He took a deep breath, like he was struggling to breathe. “That was the work of some guy named Dr. Asamo.”

I shivered at the name. That was my last name. No way was I related to anyone who would have given him that heart.

It definitely couldn’t have been daddy either, because he wasn’t evil, like Janus! And he was a scientist, not a doctor. Doctors were the people who checked your temperature and did surgery. Scientists invented things and made life easier. Clearly a difference.

So, who was it? Maybe a distant relative, or another Exceed we didn’t know about? Maybe I had a sister…or a brother? I always dreamed of having a brother personally, but not if he was a bad guy!

“I was afraid of this development.” Uncle mumbled to himself, then he turned back to me. “Yalda, you need to find shelter.”

There weren’t many places for me to go. I could hide inside that crevice in the wall again, but I had a bad feeling that wouldn’t protect me from the crazy battle they were about to start.

“Kid, go in the vents.” Janus wirelessly opened up one of the air vents on the lower part of the wall. It was big enough for me to crawl in. “Get out of my hair, let us adults talk in peace.”

He had a very evil smirk on his first face. His second face seemed more relaxed, but with a mischievous grin as well.

I snuck into the vent and crawled a few meters in. The grate slammed shut with a crash, then I heard him and Uncle talking a bit more. I couldn’t hear what they were saying over the hum of the vent.

Curiosity made me want to look back. I twisted my way back around and peeked through the vent grate. I tried to push it forward, but a forcefield spawned and kept it from opening.

"...then I thank you for this information," Uncle said. "It is most pleasing to know he's still alive."

Who was still alive? What were they talking about? It couldn't have been about da...

"Whatever! I'm sick of you! let's get this battle on."

BOOM!

The air exploded behind Janus! Loud thunder crackled through my ears! He moved so sonically fast that he broke the sound barrier!

BOOM!

Uncle did the same thing!

There weapons clashed, sending blue lightning and fire scattering all around the room.

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